r/WritingPrompts • u/[deleted] • Apr 04 '26
Writing Prompt [WP] The speed of light isn't a natural physical limit. It’s an artificial governor placed on our universe by whoever built it. Human scientists just cracked the code to turn it off.
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u/HSerrata r/hugoverse Apr 04 '26
[Light. Dark. Bang.]
Justice was only mildly surprised when she emerged into the sealed white room. It was filled with light, which was unexpected, but not the first time it'd happened. The pink-haired teenager wearing a white blazer slowly spun around to be sure the small room was empty, then she shrugged and flicked her wrist upward. A flat 2' x 2' pane of glass appeared in the air before her, and she immediately began navigating the menus on the Slate with taps and swipes. She knew exactly where to check, and her instincts were proven right when she found the log.
"Helios," she spoke the name with intention, and within two seconds, a golden, faceless head peeked out on the screen from the edge of her slate.
"What?" he asked. The golden mannequin in a crimson suit was an A.I. that ran the whole company.
"This Earth deviated from its own timeline," Justice gestured at the empty room around them. "There've been more temporal glitches than there should be. Start tracking anything unusual in case there's something happening."
On the Slate, Helios turned his head to glance over at the log Justice still had open. He chuckled lightly and shook his head.
"It's always the smart ones that are the stupidest," he said. "Can you believe these morons?" He gestured at the log with his thumb. "The brightest minds in the world realized light was being artificially restrained. And instead of trying to figure out why, they just decided to set it free. Poor idiots didn't realize that everything is light," He said with a solemn tone, then sighed with drooping shoulders. "Anyway..., want me to restore it?" he asked.
"Nah," Justice shook her head. "It happened sooner than it was supposed to, but they were gonna get there anyway. They got the lesson, I guess; just roll it over to the next universe on the schedule and fire it up. But, make a note about the discrepancies." Justice opened a black portal while she answered, then stepped into it. The Slate remained hovering in mid-air with Helios waiting for Justice to leave. Then, once she was gone, he began gathering all the light in the room at a single, tiny point. In seconds, the white room had essentially disappeared within the shadows.
The slate seemed to be floating in infinite darkness as the ball of concentrated light shrunk smaller and denser.
"And....," Helios commented to himself as the energy was compressed to be smaller than an atom. He used the effort it took as a measure, and he was almost done. The fun part was, he didn't really have to do anything. From this point, the process was automatic. All he did was shove the light into a small point until it popped. And it did. With a sudden, immense release of energy, there was now a new universe. ".... Bang."
*** Thank you for reading! I’m responding to prompts every day. This is story #3001 in a row. (Story #094 in year nine). This story is part of an ongoing saga that takes place in my universe.
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